[MCD40]

Hey guys, so here's the scenario, wondering if anyone knows what's up. I locked my keys in my trunk today so I called Onstar. They sent a signal and said it could take up to ten minutes. Ten minutes pass with no activity and I get a second call. Apparently the signal had failed and they would send another one. Ten more minutes pass, also with no activity, and I receive a third call stating that the signal had failed again, and that roadside assistance would be on standby if the third signal they were about to send out also failed. So five minutes later, my doors unlock, and I get a third call from Onstar telling me that the signal patched through and that roadside assistance would be cancelled unless I needed further assistance.

Anybody make any suggestions as to what's up? I wasn't parked in a structure or under any trees. Is this something that demands service attention? Thanks in advance.

 

[Mbai2]

Was the car turned off for 48 hours or more? IIRC, OnStar turns off after 48 hours to prevent battery run down. After the timeout period, you are out of luck as far as OnStar services go.

 

[AsAkAs]

Could be the area you were in, there are some remote areas that lack even analog service, dead zones, in valleys between mountains etc. if there is little or no cell phone service it wont go through. I doubt there is an actual problem with your equipment. Just the service itself isn't flawless./

 

[jteolis]

Remember its cell service that is sporadic. You can move 2 feet in any direction and lose cell service. I say the fact that it eventually worked points to iffy cell connection.

 

[dkozloski]

Even if you are parked under the tower you can have trouble if the cell traffic is so heavy you can't get an open channel.

 

[MCD40]

Yeah, all sounds reasonable. Just usually the Onstar works within five seconds all the other times I've used it on the past two GM cars I've driven. Thanks for the responses.

 

[jcamaro427]

I Had A Problem With My Onstar Not Unlocking The Doors Of My '04 Cts When I First Took Delivery. I Took It To My Dealer And The Service Dept. Found A Defective Computer Box Or Assembly That Was Located In The Trunk Of The Car. They Replaced The Box And The Onstar Unlock Service Worked Fine After The Repair.

Jim

 

[ewill3rd]

All the above points are valid.

OnStar has power cycles. I don't remember the exact details but they know when the car powers up and when it does they can call in and open the doors. They have to catch one of these cycles and yes, it's done by cellular. The transciever in the OnStar unit is I think a 6 watt.
Your handheld cellular is about .6 (if memory serves).
Reception with your OnStar system should be better than your average handheld unit but it does have limitations like everyone said.
If the car has been sitting for several days OnStar can do nothing because the VCIM (OnStar module) won't wake up until the key is cycled.

A faulty piece of hardware could be to blame as well. I had a Catera recently that had a bad VIU (old style OnStar module).

If the OnStar is working now that you are back in your car, I would chalk it up to a cellular glitch.

 

[dkozloski]

I saw in the news where some guy got car-jacked and OnStar refused to track the car for the family. Now OnStar is getting their ass sued off because the guy was found murdered after they had a chance to prevent it. I guess they didn't want to embarrass him.

 

[MCD40]

I Had A Problem With My Onstar Not Unlocking The Doors Of My '04 Cts When I First Took Delivery. I Took It To My Dealer And The Service Dept. Found A Defective Computer Box Or Assembly That Was Located In The Trunk Of The Car. They Replaced The Box And The Onstar Unlock Service Worked Fine After The Repair.

Jim

Did it work after a few attempts, before the unit was replaced?

All the above points are valid.

OnStar has power cycles. I don't remember the exact details but they know when the car powers up and when it does they can call in and open the doors. They have to catch one of these cycles and yes, it's done by cellular. The transciever in the OnStar unit is I think a 6 watt.
Your handheld cellular is about .6 (if memory serves).
Reception with your OnStar system should be better than your average handheld unit but it does have limitations like everyone said.
If the car has been sitting for several days OnStar can do nothing because the VCIM (OnStar module) won't wake up until the key is cycled.

A faulty piece of hardware could be to blame as well. I had a Catera recently that had a bad VIU (old style OnStar module).

If the OnStar is working now that you are back in your car, I would chalk it up to a cellular glitch.

Haha, I had a Catera a year ago that had bigger problems than a bad VIU in terms of using Onstar features. Good info to know though, thanks.

I saw in the news where some guy got car-jacked and OnStar refused to track the car for the family. Now OnStar is getting their ass sued off because the guy was found murdered after they had a chance to prevent it. I guess they didn't want to embarrass him.

I don't understand the terms under which they would refuse to track the car?

 

[ewill3rd]

The only reason I could think of would be if he wasn't paying for the service but thought they should track it anyway. If he was a paying customer they would not refuse. I am not sure in that case that OnStar would have an obligation to track his car.
Are you saying he was kidnapped along with the car?

I'd like to see someone prove in a court of law that the guy could still be alive if OnStar had helped them track the car. That sounds more like a myth than a real story.

 

[TripleOught]

whether they can prove it or not, don't forget that most deep pocket companies will settle less pay the ongoing court costs...

bs? absolutely. sorry to the lawyers of the group, but fruadulant and frivelous lawsuits are out of control. i can't believe people represent half the claims. all comes down to $$...sad.

 

[dkozloski]

The guy was kidnapped along with the car and was later found murdered. The reasoning I understood was that the people who wanted the car tracked didn't own it. Why the police didn't act wasn't stated. The news article was in regards to the civil suit being filed against OnStar. I heard this on a major network radio newscast. Probably Dan Rather doctoring up the story again.

 

[ewill3rd]

They probably killed him and threw his body in the trunk or something.
But we don't know the particulars, either way it sounds like total speculation that he was alive long enough to be "saved" by onstar

 

[dkozloski]

The medical examiner is going to be an important part of that suit. If it turns out it could have made a difference OnStar is going to dig deep.

 

[CTS-TO]

If that's the same story I read, they weren't SUBCRIBERS to Onstar.. and still wanted the Services, OnStar couldn't do anything anyway because activation must be done from within the car...

That ^ case will be thrown out! If they won, noone would subcribe and just take advantage of OnStar only when they needed it else force litigation.